Email Update from the First 4 Months

Below is a copy of the email update we sent out to all our friends and family describing our experiences during our first 4 months in Peru. If somehow we didn't send this email to you and you'd like to be on our list, just let us know!

Dear Family and Friends,

Warm greetings to all of you from both of us here in Peru! As most of you know, Milene and I have been in Peru for 4 months now as Peace Corps volunteers. At times it seems like 4 days and at times it feels like 4 years. Either way, it's about time we sent out our first email update to all of you.

Before we go on, because this email will be rather long, we want to give you a few important contact details:

Check our BLOG for updates, photos, info, etc at: www.nateandmilene.blogspot.com.

Check our WEB ALBUM for photos and captions: http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanhaft

You can call us at: 011-51-76-976401187 (this is what you would dial from the U.S.)

You can send us letters or packages at:

Nathan and Milene Haft

Voluntarios de Cuerpo de Paz

Casilla Postal No. 779

SERPOST La Libertad

Trujillo – Peru, S.A.

***Packages must be sent through United States Postal Service, be under 7 pounds, sent in a padded envelope, and have a declared value of under $100.

We'd love to hear from all of you, whether it be through phone, email, internet blog, or letters!

Also, before I forget if there is anyone who I forgot to include on this email list and you think would like to receive our periodic updates, please let me know. On the other hand, if you would like to be removed from our update list, just let me know and we will take you off--we understand and we promise it won't hurt our feelings!

Back to our email update – We arrived in Lima, Peru on June 6^th, 2008 along with 36 other volunteers who, together with the two of us, constitute Peru 11. We are the eleventh group of Peace Corps volunteers to serve in Peru since Peace Corps re-entered the country in 2002 after 27 years of absence (volunteers were in Peru from 1962 -1975 but the program was suspended due to political instability). As we drove from the airport to our training camp at midnight on our first night in Peru we were surprised by what we experienced—run-down slums on the side of the highway, piles of burning trash on the road, the noxious fumes of vehicle pollution, nearby buses trotting along with far too many passengers than safety would allow. We asked ourselves, "Was this the Peru of which we heard so many fascinating tales prior to leaving the U.S.?"

Yes, this is the same Peru. Like every other developing country in the world, Peru suffers from poverty, poor education, a lack of infrastructure, and pollution, among other ills. Although we were a bit shocked when we first experienced the ugly side of Lima, we have come to know a far more beautiful side of Peru as well. Since that first drive through the city, we have seen some of the most magnificent sites, met some of the most caring people, eaten some of the most exotic food, and had some of the most exciting adventures of our lives. In Ancash, a province known for being home to the second highest mountain in South America, Milene had the opportunity to swim in a gorgeous (but freezing!) glacial lake and hiked along trails overlooked by snow-peaked mountains jutting high into the clouds. In Cajamarca, where the last Incan king Atahualpa was captured and killed by the invading conquistadores, we wound through skinny dirt roads along steep mountain cliffs and passed picturesque rolling green pastures. In Trujillo on the coast, we walked through the pre-Incan ruins of Chan Chan where 1500-year old dirt temples still stand. Near the Plaza de Armas in Lima we tried our first plate of ceviche, or raw fish with lime juice, and had our first taste of cuy, or fried guinea pig. Peru is indeed very exciting, with both its good and bad, and while it does not quite feel like home yet, we are very much enjoying ourselves here.

We spent our first three months in Lima undergoing training along with the other volunteers to prepare for our two-year service in site. During those three months we attended classes daily from 8am-5pm in subjects such as language, safety, culture, development, history and technical training in our respective program areas (Milene with youth development and Nathan with small business development). Most of the classes were given in Spanish to help us adapt quickly. During this time we lived with a host family in a town which was about 10 minutes walking distance from the training center. When my dad saw pictures of the town he said it reminded him of Palestine (he's been there a few times): lots of dirt, no pavement, brick or adobe houses, and plenty of barking dogs. As our host mom, Angelica, always told us, "La casa es chica pero el corazón es grande," meaning "Our house is small but our heart is big." That was certainly the case. Although we slept in a room about a fifth of the size of our room in the U.S., and although showers were luke warm at best and freezing at worst, we were given a constant supply of love and nurture from our host family. Relatively speaking, the fact that our town had running water (installed only a year ago), electricity and warm-ish water was a blessing. But the greater blessing was having such a wonderful family to look after us. Angelica (mother) prepared delicious food every day and was a happy chatter-box at every meal; Lucho (father) worked as a bus driver away from home during the week to support his family but still found time to teach us how to make Pachamanca (see blog for a fun video of us cooking potatoes and chicken in the ground); Cristian (older brother) loved to hang out with us and share with us his knowledge of American pop culture and English slang; and Irwin (younger brother), while usually reserved, always invited us to see him play in his club soccer games. Now that we have moved out to a different province, our host family calls us occasionally to check up and we have promised to visit them for Christmas this year.

On August 22, we graduated from training and officially swore in as Peace Corps volunteers with the Charge d'Affaires of the American embassy and other important dignitaries present at the ceremony. We then took a 17-hour bus ride to the department of Cajamarca to permanently move in to our site. [side note: the buses in Peru put Greyhound to shame and include TVs, seats that recline into beds, and full meal service.] Our small town of about 3,500 people is located in the foothills of the Andes mountains in the department (equivalent to a state in the U.S.) of Cajamarca .

To put it briefly, we couldn't be happier with our site assignment and the people we live with here in our town. We feel very comfortable here and I think we were almost meant to be in this town. I've never been too sure about my opinion on destiny but the night before our sight assignments were given to us by Peace Corps administration, I had a bizarrely accurate dream/premonition of my future site. I woke up that morning and explained my entire dream to Milene—that we were going to live in a small town built on a giant blue lake and surrounded by mountains. Although the town was constructed on pillars above the lake, our house was to be on the shore of the lake, according to my dream. In the dream we were on a porch as water lapped up to within a few feet of us. When I explained the dream to my bosses that day, they were extremely shocked to hear such an accurate description of our site without them having told us our assignment yet. Sure enough, when we arrived at site, our town sat exactly on the edge of an enormous blue lake, surrounded by mountains. Our house was one of two homes in town that was located directly on the lake shore. During the rainy season, water comes up to the walls of the home, and although we don't have a porch, we do have a balcony. Oddly enough, as I had dreamed that the town was actually built on the lake, I later found out that the town had previously been located where the lake is now, but was relocated further up the mountain when the government installed a hydro-electric dam and flooded the entire valley, giving rise to a lake exactly where the town used to be.

Beyond supernatural signs, Milene and I are enjoying daily reality here. It is very ´tranquilo´ as they say here, and the constant temperate weather encourages a very laid-back lifestyle. The serenity of the mountains, lake and the breeze trickles down to daily life. Siesta from about 1-4 in the afternoon is a regular occurrence, and many people often spend their afternoons sitting outside their homes and on street corners just chatting with their neighbors. Milene and I have gladly embraced the culture, and we spend many afternoons and evenings reading or sitting out on our balcony relaxing in front of the beautiful view our house has. We often see large birds gliding above us on the balcony, and swooping low within about 20 feet of us. We're starting to pick up yoga as well and I have noticed a significant improvement in my usual back discomfort as a result.

Our host family consists of an elderly mother (74 yrs old!) and several grown children who actually live in a bigger city about an hour from our town. Their family business is in agriculture, and so our backyard is filled with several acres of rice paddies, as well as a small grove of mango, avocado, banana and mandarin trees. We also have a small grape vineyard which is not producing very well and we have taken an interest in solving the grape problem in order to make some of our very own home-made wine. In fact, we have plans to team up with another volunteer in Cajamarca and start our own wine business in Peru when we finish up Peace Corps (half joke, half serious).

On the work side of things, Milene is off to a good start as a Youth Development Volunteer. She is starting to meet people at the schools and health post and form plans for workshops and youth programs. She is doing a lot of studying of materials which Peace Corps gave her for ideas on creative programs. She recently began a joint program with the health post to go into schools and teach children about healthy living, including talks on hand-washing, brushing teeth, self-esteem, gender equality, etc. However, she is trying to play mostly a supporting role in these first few months so as to understand the town's situation better before trying to propose programs of her own. Our town is a bit more developed than many other volunteer sites in terms of youth programs. They already have in place many of the programs that Peace Corps youth development volunteers would otherwise initiate. However, some of the feedback she has received so far from the town is that there is a need for character or value education, and also guidance for career development.

For me, in the Small Business Development program, I am spending my time getting to know my organizations and the town. I work principally with three groups: a women's weaving association, a shrimp farming business, and a tourism development committee. It's a big deal to ´ganar confianza´ which literally means 'win the confidence' of people in our town because Peace Corps' development strategy is to become friends and integrate into the town before trying to help fix problems they may have. Peruvian culture is such that we can not simply come in to a town and start teaching them things because a) we don´t know enough about their situation to give accurate advice and b) they won't listen to us without us first becoming friends. So I spend most afternoons either at the weaving workshop, out in the shrimp farms, or in meetings with the tourism committee, trying to get to know their associations and the people better. Recently, I began business English classes for the weaving association to prepare for an upcoming artisan fair in Lima, and am working with them to find export markets for their products. With the shrimp farmers, we are working on a business plan to construct a new shrimp larva laboratory which will dramatically cut down on production costs for the group and hopefully allow for rapid expansion.

Milene and I visit many local stores and try to engage with as many people as possible in town in order to understand their opinions, lifestyles and needs. We will be focusing on this for three months at the end of which we will submit an exhaustive community diagnostic report with recommendations for future development work. Peru is in a very important stage of development in which its macroeconomy is growing rapidly due to success in heavy industrial sectors, but where small rural towns have yet to feel the benefits of this growth. On the contrary, they have become strapped with rising food and commodity prices and yet lack new opportunities for their personal economic growth. In addition, it is important that the country's new found money is administered efficiently and fairly in all areas such as health, infrastructure, and education. As Peace Corps Peru volunteers we are trying to help those most in need to connect with the benefits and opportunities provided by Peru's macro-growth.

Well this email has run on to short story length and it is about time to conclude. Plus, the donkeys' hee-hawing outside is reminding me how late it is. For all of you who have made it to the end of this long email, thanks for taking the time hear about our happenings. Thank you all so much for your support, love and friendship, which helps us tremendously being down here on our own.Any time we receive emails or letters it always brightens our day and helps us to feel connected to all our loved ones back in the States. If you feel especially inspired, we are always delighted to receive care packages (for ideas on what to send, check out our blog's wish list).

We hope all is well with you and your families. Until the next time we get internet access, take care.

With Love from Peru,

Nathan and Milene